Thank you for playing our trivia game during All District Day. Here are the correct answers and our reasoning and sources to show how we found answers. 

Question 1

Camera obscura, the forerunner of the modern-day camera, uses a pinhole or lens to focus rays of light to project an upside-down image onto a wall or surface. Who first described the concept of camera obscura:

1. Daniele Barbaro, a Venetian nobleman in 1568
2. Chinese philosopher Mo-tzu in 400 BC
3. Leonardo da Vinci in 1502
4. Johannes Kepler in 1604
5. Greek philosopher Aristotle in the 4th Century
6. Ibn al-Haytham in the 11th Century

Answer

2. Chinese philosopher Mo-tzu described light from an illuminated object that passed through a pinhole in a dark room projected an inverted image of the object on the wall of the dark room. [Sources: Camera Obscura & A World of Illusions: Camera Obscuras Through Time (2020) and History of Camera Obscura: Photography History Facts.]

Question 2

Where did the formula  originate?

1. Greece
2. Egypt
3. China
4. South America
5. No one knows for sure, it appears in many ancient cultures

Answer

5. While this formula is called Pythagorean Theorem, and is named after Greek philosopher Pythagoras, it is likely that Pythagoras learned the theorem while studying in Egypt. (NASA). “While Pythagoras lived and wrote from 569–475 BCE, the result that now bears his name appeared as early as 1800 BCE in surviving clay Babylonian tablets. The Pythagorean theorem was also known to early Chinese scholars and appeared in the sacred texts of ancient India related to altar building” [(History of Mathematics Project).]

Question 3

What form did the first evidence of credit take?

1. Letters of credit used in the 1800s for people who traveled
2. 1930s Charga-Plate (a metal dog-tag style plaste with a customer’s name and city imprinted on it. They were used for store credit for specific retailers.
3. Clay tablets were found in ancient Mesopotamia showing agreements between merchants and traders from other regions agreeing to pay for goods.
4. “Metal Money” from Western Union in 1914, an early form of the modern credit card

Answer

3. [Sources: History of Credit Cards: A Brief Overview, Holly Johnson, Time Stamped, (2024). When Were Credit Cards Invented?: The History of Credit Cards, Robin Saks Frankel, Forbes Advisor, (2021). The Mesopotamian Merchant Files, Eric A. Powell, Archaeology, (2018).]

Question 4

Where was the evidence of the roots of the modern alphabet found?

1. Egypt
2. Greece
3. Russia
4. Chile

Answer

1 The temple complex that was found on the Sinai Peninsula in a place called Serabit el-Khadim (a remote plateau) included the roots of the alphabet we use today. The alphabet seems to be developed based on shortening a hieroglyph into a letter. For example, the letter A comes from the hieroglyph for an ox or aleph. The letter B derived for the hieroglyph for house, bêt.  [Source: Who Invented the Alphabet, Lydia Wilson, Smithsonian Magazine (2021)]

Question 5

What is the first known printed book?

1. The Gutenberg Bible (1452 in Mianz, Germany)
2. Codex Parisino-Petropolitanus (7th-8th Century, Egypt)
3. The Diamond Sutra (868 A.D. in China)
4. The Pseudo-Apuleius Herbarius (6–7th century, France)
5. Gärima Gospels (390–570, Ethiopia)

Answer: 3. No one is sure when the first printing press was invented, but in China printed books existed as early at 868 A.D. The Diamond Sutra, was made with wood blocks carved in reverse. While the Gutenberg printing press is often credited as the first printing press, it wasn’t even the first movable type press, which was developed in China by Bi Sheng, from Yingshan, Hubei, China, who lived roughly from 970 to 1051 A.D. Bi Sheng used baked clay blocks, rather than metal to create moveable type. Gutenberg’s press used brass and his own ink which worked on metal. [Source: Printing Press, History.com editors, (2018 with updates in 2023), Here are Some of the Oldest Surviving Books in the World, Simon Leser, Culture Trip (2018)]

Question 6

When and where was coinage (metal money such as nickels, quarters, and dimes) developed?

1. In the 8th century BC in Greek city states
2. In the 3rd century BC in Rome
3. Between 612 and 621 in the Visigoth Kingdom (modern day Spain)
4. 7th century BC in Lydia (modern day Turkey)

Answer

4. Coinage, small metal discs, ingots, or specially made tools with specific values used in trade was developed in Lydia during the 7th century BC. The Greeks adopted the idea shortly after. The Romans borrowed the idea from the Greeks and added symbols and abbreviation and symbols that unified the money. [Source: The History of Money, American Numismatic Association (n.d)]

Question 7

Which restaurant most likely first served Buffalo Wings?

1. Buffalo’s Anchor Bar owned by Italian immigrants Frank and Teressa Bellissimo
2. John Young’s Wings and Things, a Black-Owned business in Buffalo
3. The Clarendon Hotel, a hotel in Buffalo in 1857
4. A Black-Owned restaurant in Washington, D.C. called Wings N’ Things
5. All of these restaurants likely contributed to the current “Buffalo Wing”

Answer

5. While The Clarendon Hotel has the first menu that lists “Chicken Wings, fried,” they likely weren’t anywhere close to the current recipe. Fried chicken wings have been a part of Black Cuisine prior to John Young introducing them at Wings and Things, in a New Yorker article Young claimed that chicken wings have been served by Black people “forever.” Young’s introduction was to add mumbo sauce, which is a spicy tomato sauce. [Sources: An Attempt to Compile a Short History of the Buffalo Chicken Wing, by Calvin Trillin, (1980); Who Invented Buffalo Wings?, Becky Little, (2023); Who really Invented Buffalo Wings, Julia Arwine and Tess Berger (2022); The Secret Contested History of Buffalo Wings- and the Black chef who got left out, Matthew Korhage (2021)].

Question 8

Which of the following is the oldest higher-learning institution in the world still in operation?

1. University of Al Quaraouiyine (Morocco)
2. University of Salamanca (Spain)
3. University of Oxford (England)
4. University of Bologna (Italy)

Answer

1. The University of Al Quaraouiyine was founded in 859 AD in Fez, Morocco. [Sources: What Are the 15 Oldest Universities in the World?, Jessica Mason, Oxford Scholastica Academy (2023).]

Question 9

American barbecue has a rich tradition. Which of the following are true statements about what is currently known about American barbecue? (There is more than one answer.)

1. The name barbecue comes from the Spanish conquistadors on Christopher Columbus’ expedition when they observed indigenous peoples of the Caribbean slow cooking meat on indirect flame.
2. The original “barbecue” was most probably a slow smoking process meant to keep insects away as meat was cured by both sun and indirect flame.
3. In the southeastern part of the United States, barbecue is most associated with pork because the first European settlers found that pork was easier to raise than larger livestock. Whereas in parts of the United States, such as Texas, beef is more common because the settlers had more land and resources to raise cattle.
4. Kansas City became known for its barbecue largely because of the Great Migration of Black people from the South in the early 20th Century.

Answers

All statements. According to our current understanding of the development of American barbecue practices, all of these statements are true. [Sources: The Evolution of American Barbecue, Natasha Geiling, Smithsonian Magazine, (2023). The History of Barbecue, Derrick Riches, The Spruce Eats, (2023). KC Black History: Who were the pioneers who made here the ‘BBQ capital of the worldd’? Michael Wlls, The Kansas City Star, (2023).]

Question 10

Which culture used the first processed rubber?

1. The English (Joseph Priestley), to make erasers which the English called rubbers
2. The Scottish (Charles Macintosh), to make coatings for raincoats (The Mackintosh)
3. The Olmec people of South America, to make rubber balls, figures figurines, and bindings
4. The Americans (Charles Goodyear), to make vulcanized tires

Answer

3. The Olmec, also known as the Rubber People, were the first to process the Castilla elastica tree by mixing it with juice from a morning glory species to get elastic properties into a pliable, tough, and workable substance. As a side note, the rubber balls were a part of a game that is sometimes called “the rubber ball game.” It is the first known sport (even though it was used in religious ceremonies) using a ball. [Sources: Charles Goodyear: Vulcanized Rubber, Lemelson-MIT (n.d.). Rubber processed in ancient Mesoamerica, MIT researchers find, Deborah Halber, MIT News, (1999). History of Rubber, SPC Group Rubber Compounding (n.d.)]